Talitha Dina Pol (1940–1971) was born in Bali. After moving to London in 1945, following a traumatic period spent with her birth mother in a Japanese POW camp, Talitha studied at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts with hopes of becoming an actress. Young, beautiful, and exotic, she was courted and celebrated by London society, becoming the second wife of John Paul Getty Jnr., the son of oil tycoon Paul Getty, in 1966. She wore an all-white, mink-trimmed, hooded minidress that echoed the height of Swi

Ball gowns are considered to be the most extravagant category of evening dress. Although balls date back to the Middle Ages, and historically were seen as dance parties to celebrate all manner of occasions, they reemerged as a popular way to introduce eligible women and men into marriageable society during the mid-1800s. Competition for suitors centered on the expense and opulence of a woman’s ball gown. Subsequently, ball gowns have continued to represent ideals of romantic femininity. On the ca

Stephen Sprouse was a pioneer in merging street style and high fashion. During his early career at Halston, he was drawn to the downtown New York punk scene. Working with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol, his fall/winter collection of 1988 had all of the hallmarks of a Sprouse collection, with Day-Glo fabrics, sheath dresses, and bold graffiti prints. It was also Sprouse’s last collection for a decade. Stephen’s career flourished again at the end of his life thanks to his famou

The omnipresent significance of the eighteenth century and the masked ball for the House of Dior found expression in the design of “Angie” for the “Masquerade and Bondage” collection, a short variation on 1760s court dress, paraphrasing the fashionable life and cruel fate of Marie Antoinette. Using the surface of the hip panels as a canvas for narrative and caricaturized embroideries, the dress becomes an epitome of storytelling through dressmaking, evoking crucial episodes of French history. Gal

The evolution of the bridal gown, and its history, aesthetic, and rituals, are significant within our cultural history and have an influence on the contemporary wedding ceremony. Modern designers continue to be influenced by fashion history, or may reflect current styles and concerns. This article predominantly refers to the white wedding gown worn traditionally in Western Christian cultures, its heritage, and the wedding dress as archival object.

In this collection, presented in the Champs-Élysées cinema, Karl Lagerfeld introduced the “slope,” a new iteration of the Chanel jacket that featured a narrow-fitting shoulder line. The clothes were influenced by a combination of eighteenth-century robes à la française and the mod 1960s, with open panniers that revealed miniskirts and thigh-high boots. The playfulness of the collection spoke to the young and daring attitude of the new couture customer. For the finale, Lagerfeld presented three br

This collection was shown at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, in the Windsor suite—in the mode of a traditional salon show. It drew positive reviews, with one saying it was “the height of refinement … how a couture customer wants to look.” Yet, it focused mostly on evening wear, with sheer, lightweight fabrics. Despite the raciness of the revealing dresses, they looked traditional and refined. To underscore the refinement, Chanel’s logo was absent from the garments. Picture hats and “feather-on-a-stick”

One of the first media reports on mods, under the headline “Faces without Shadows” and published in Town Magazine in September 1962, provides insight into the consumer practices of these youths (see partial reprint in Rawlings 2000: 42–7). The article revolves around the fifteen-year-old Feld, MarkMark Feld (later, Marc Bolan of the band T-Rex) and his twenty-year-old friends Sugar, PeterPeter Sugar and Simmonds, MichaelMichael Simmonds living in the London neighborhood Stoke Newington. They desc

Dolce & Gabbana’s spring/summer collection of 1997 capitalized on their strengths. Sensual chiffon hugged curvaceous (but trim) hips and bra straps peeked out from under delicate, negligee-inspired fishtail gowns. The palette of the runway was punctuated by animal prints and florals, often visible beneath the sheer material of the dresses or through open-weave crochet sweaters. Their look is sexy and upbeat, drawing influence from Domenico Dolce’s Sicilian heritage and the imagery of Italian film

Rhodes’s spring/summer 1984 collection made its debut in London’s Ritz Carlton hotel. Having studied textiles before designing fashion, Rhodes’s garments utilize fabric with a high degree of detail and craftsmanship. This collection was no exception, with dresses made of embroidered chiffon, metallic sequined ensembles, and dresses encrusted with hanging pearls and crystals, all in pastel color schemes accented with blazes of magenta and deep cerulean. While a few typical 1980s body-conscious, sh

Holiday, Billieinfluence of Hollywoodstyleof Billie HolidayHoliday, Billiedress/style ofOn April 7, 1915, Eleanora Fagan, who would later become known as Billie Holiday, was born in Philadelphia to Sadie, a single mother. This simple event did not foreshadow the star that would suddenly shine bright and burn out within a few decades. In Baltimore, Fagan’s Holiday, Billieearly yearsearly years included a laboring mother, an absent father, truancy, rape by a neighbor and time at an institution for